I trade because of the money. Anybody who works in finance/wall st who tells you otherwise is blowing smoke up your butt. It's always about the money Any other job you're basically a capped slave. But with trading, if you're truly good...the sky is literally the limit, And I was greatly inspired by the greats like Dan Zanger, Japanese traders CIS and BNF, and I hate to admit it...but Tim Sykes too, Initially, as a nobody amateur, you just want a few extra bucks to eat steak lunches, then a new laptop money. nice watch money. then it grows to a decent car. -- then the rest is history...
I read Alexander Elder's book "Trading for a Living", and bought into the dream and freedom that such a life of financial independence could provide along with the seemingly straight forward approach of using technical analysis to determine future market direction. Using one's brain to systematically tackle the market was an incentive draw as well. Had I known the true reality that all TA presented as "simple WORKING indicators" are just a crock and that blown accounts, years of seemingly fruitless research of trial and error with the hope of getting enough intuitive sparks that let you create your own working system from scratch before you decide to give up due to ruination, disgust, or both were in store - I probably would have promptly put that book back on the shelf and just stuck with index fund investing.
My reasons are substantially similar to yours. I have Asperger's syndrome, so those features of a working environment all particularly suit what passes for my "personality". And I like and am instinctively drawn to anything mathematical/statistical/probabilistic, and to charts. And I sometimes buy very expensive shoes, and trading is a good way to pay for them.
I`m a sociopath obsessed with expensive shoes.Any time they open their godamn mouthes gets me really mad......... besides, i`m an ex amature boxer and a hockey player.What else in the world would i do, if not trading???!!! btw, i don`t like math/stats/probs anymore.
I thought if I could figure out how to do it well, it would be an easy way to make significant money. Turns out to have side benefits.... don't have to wear a suit every day, don't have to go to an office, can drink beer while "at work" (that's one of those "just because you can doesn't mean you should").